Trucking: Trying to start up, hot shot business, personal truck

Question
I am in the process of opening my own hot shot business. I am using my personal truck to haul various equipment and people to docks in the gulf. I will be working more in the offshore department. The truck bed alone is all I really need. With this said, my question is, can you tell me what my rates should be. I've heard between $1.00 - $1.50 per mile. My next question is how it works. Do I do the haul and bill them afterwards and they send me a check in the mail? My last question is, do you have sample p/w that I may copy from as to how the contract or p/w should look like? I'm sure your going to write the date, the company your doing the run for, the mile you started and ended with, and what else? Any help is great.

Answer
Lindsay, this is outside my normal area of expertise but the $1.00 to $1.50 sound like it should work depending on how many empty miles you have before or after the paying run.
Regarding the documentation and standard practices in this industry I really don't know, but would suggest you check out these websites:
http://www.expresstrucking.com/index.html
http://www.expeditersonline.com/
Best of luck.  Jim.